The Editor's Desk

An interesting casino-related issue is playing out that may or may not have an impact on Barstow’s future efforts to bring an off-reservation Indian casino to town.

Various interests have managed to force the gaming compacts Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed with four tribes to a referendum vote. They argue that the agreements, with four wealthy gaming tribes, are a sweetheart deal for these particular tribes to greatly expand at the expense of the state and other needy tribes. You can read the details for yourself on the opponents’ site.

How does this relate to Barstow? Well, these folks are trying to force a vote in order to block four compacts from approval. Would the reverse be possible? The compacts between Big Lagoon and Los Coyotes (two of the tribes who want to build in Barstow) were held up in the state legislature until they expired. Would it be possible for supporters to circumvent the legislature and force it to a public vote in order to try to get it passed?

There are a number of issues to consider:

• It would be an extremely expensive endeavor. Millions and milions of dollars would be spent by both sides, and that’s not even counting the costs of trying to gather the necessary signatures statewide to put it on the ballot. This is a fairly modest casino project that’s been proposed for Barstow. If the effort succeeds, how long would it take for the casino to actually earn back the money spent in this effort?

• It would be an extremely nasty fight. This would make the Measure H conflict look like a playground shoving match. If one of the major talking points against off-reservation casinos is that California residents didn’t approve Indian gaming with the expectation it would crop up just anywhere, you better believe opponents would be warning voters these compacts will result in casinos in their backyards. We can’t even say such an argument is factually wrong, because as it stands, it’s simply the current governor’s policy to limit possible off-reservation casinos to non-urban areas. It’s not set in stone.

• Even if successful, the federal government could overrule the whole process. There’s another whole battle with getting federal approval to put the tribal land in trust, and initiative or not, they could reject it because of the lack of ties to the land by the tribes involved (though the Los Coyotes claim they do have ties to the area). All the effort could come to naught.

At the moment, the issue is moot, as the compacts have expired and the tribes don’t have new ones negotiated as yet.
But if they got new compacts, it raises the question as to whether a ballot initiative (not a referendum, as the compacts never got approved) could deal with the legislative logjam. If nothing else, we’d get a better look at what Californians really think about off-reservation casinos.

And of course, I have to add as a libertarian, if gambling were legal, all of this nonsense wouldn’t be an issue, but the tribes certainly wouldn’t want to have to deal with that kind of competition.